Sainsbury's scheme diversifies

By

Mike Foster

January 16, 2006 5:00 pm GMT

The £3.1bn (€4.5bn) pension scheme of J Sainsbury, the UK retailer, is to invest 5% of its assets in commodity futures.

The move by the fund coincides with plans by Unilever's £4.3bn UK scheme to take a similar weighting in hedge funds as schemes attempt to cut their funding deficits through diversification. Sainsbury's annual report revealed a funding deficit of £450m last March, while Unilever's global pensions deficit was £2.2bn at the beginning of last year.